Joystiq

Halo 4 getting new Forge Island map for free on April 11

Mike Schramm — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:30:00 EST

343 Industries has announced at PAX East this weekend that Halo 4 is getting a new Forge map, with plenty of blank, open canvas for Halo level makers to paint their creativity on. As you can see in the quick video on IGN's page, "Forge Island" actually has three different islands of varying size, all completely flat and round, to give map makers lots of room to build whatever they want.

The map will also come with some new Forge pieces, which the developers have already used to build a copy of Hang 'Em High. 343 specifically asked at the panel if a fan would be kind enough to remake Blood Gulch on the biggest island, so that's possible too. The new map and related tools are all being released for free on April 11, just a few days after the Castle Map Pack arrives on April 8.

Halo 4 getting new Forge Island map for free on April 11 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

BattleBlock Theater closed beta starts Feb. 28, still time to sign up

Mike Schramm — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:00:00 EST

We've been following The Behemoth's followup to Castle Crashers, BattleBlock Theater, for years now - and it's almost, almost ready to play. The Behemoth has announced that the beta, which took signups back in January, will begin two weeks from now on February 28.

Roughly ten thousand players will be allowed in, and The Behemoth says there's still time to become one of them.

A new video of BattleBlock Theater, above, shows what the beta will look like. Count on there being laughter, merriment, and plenty of antlers.

BattleBlock Theater closed beta starts Feb. 28, still time to sign up originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mass Effect 3 enacts Operation Overdrive this weekend

Mike Schramm — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 02:00:00 EST

The forces of Mass Effect 3 are back at it again this weekend, running a weekly event called Operation Overdrive. Just like the other events in this series, there's both a squad and an allied goal, with separate rewards for each.

The squad goal this time will be to hit full extraction on any map in just 20 minutes or less, and that will nab you a Commendation Pack if completed. The Allied Goal is across all of the game's players, and asks for 200,000 extraction waves to be beaten in total. Completing that goal will get everyone involved a Victory Pack. Not to mention all of the lives that will be saved from repelling the Reaper invasion, right?

Mass Effect 3 enacts Operation Overdrive this weekend originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EA allowing banned Origin players access to offline content

Mike Schramm — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:30:00 EST

EA has quietly made things a little easier for those banned from its digital Origin service, allowing even those scorned by the company to access single player content in purchased and downloaded games. Previously, gamers who behaved badly on official EA forums or otherwise caused their accounts to be revoked were locked out completely, but now EA is saying that by switching the Origin client over to offline mode, players can at least play bought games by themselves.

To get back online, players will need to appeal the ban, for which instructions can be found here. EA does say that most bans are only temporary, but just in case you want to speed up the process we'll say this: Offering crop sacrifices to an idol of John Riccitiello certainly can't hurt.

EA allowing banned Origin players access to offline content originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Star Wars: The Old Republic hits a million players, 28 million hours played

Mike Schramm — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:15:00 EST

EA has announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic has assembled more than a million registered players in its first week officially live, earning it the self-granted title of "fastest growing subscription MMO in history."

A million players is a solid milestone, but EA and BioWare still have some parsecs to travel to make SW:TOR a resounding success: The beta test, don't forget, was able to pick up twice as many players than are currently registered. EA's management expects at least two million players to call the game successful at all, according to previous reports.

EA says that players have logged in more than 28 million game hours (no word on how many hours spent waiting in login queues, of course), and in that time have created 3.8 million characters, split about evenly across Jedi and Sith. More than 2 billion NPCs have been killed in the eight days since launch as well, which is quite the virtual genocide. You can check out the official stats and announcement below.

Continue reading Star Wars: The Old Republic hits a million players, 28 million hours played

Star Wars: The Old Republic hits a million players, 28 million hours played originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Riot CEO Brandon Beck on forging success with League of Legends

Mike Schramm — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:20:00 EST

Riot Games has announced player numbers for its extremely popular League of Legends title, and they're pretty phenomenal. With over 15 million registered players, the Defense of the Ancients-style online multiplayer RTS can now brush shoulders with games like Blizzard's World of Warcraft (12 million players), Call of Duty (13 million players on Xbox Live), and The Sims (16 million copies sold), as one of the biggest PC games in history. Granted, as a free-to-play title that relies on microtransactions for revenue, League of Legends has more access to a wider audience than games driven by retail sales or subscriptions. But there's no question at all that this is a huge and exceptionally popular game.

Joystiq got to talk with CEO and co-founder of Riot Brandon Beck about today's announcement, and he says that even the company was surprised by how big LoL (as it's called in shorthand) has gotten. "The growth of the League of Legends community far exceeded our expectations," he tells us. "We are proud of the numbers we are hitting on our platform and are confident our fantastic team can continue to grow and evolve our PvP.net technology to handle even greater numbers."

Continue reading Riot CEO Brandon Beck on forging success with League of Legends

Riot CEO Brandon Beck on forging success with League of Legends originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Xbox Live leaderboard data shows how House Party promotion fared

Mike Schramm — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:00:00 EST

GamerBytes did a little number-crunching on the Xbox Live Arcade leaderboards for last month, and while we don't have exact numbers on Xbox Live titles (other than Major Nelson's usual list of most-played and purchased games), these are usually a rough indication of what business was like on Microsoft's network last month.

Bionic Commando: Re-armed 2 was the biggest disappointment, picking up fewer than 10,000 players on the leaderboards, compared to over 130K first-week sales for the first title. Hard Corps: Uprising, the first game to come out under Microsoft's "House Party" banner, brought in a few more players, at around 27K, and Bejeweled Blitz Live did pretty well (for a game that's on nearly every platform known to man in its basic form) with over 14K new players in the single week of February it was out.

Sales were big drivers -- Hydrophobia picked up over 10,000 new players thanks to a sale, and Geometry Wars 2 saw a huge bump as well. Outside of the new titles, Pinball FX 2 and Trials HD continue to grow their leaderboards.

Xbox Live leaderboard data shows how House Party promotion fared originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

APB has 130K registered players, high average playtime and revenue per user

Mike Schramm — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Weird But True, Opinions, New In Pop Culture

Realtime Worlds as a company has been suffering from all kinds of problems lately, but how's the game doing? With a very short press release, the company (currently "in administration," which is the British version of bankruptcy) has announced that APB is hosting 130,000 registered players. That's actually not too bad for a brand new MMO -- while real population numbers are often hard to come by, the most recent estimates would have the game beating Star Trek Online's current active base. And STO has actually done pretty well, considering how tough it is to start up a new MMO.

Realtime Worlds still isn't home and dry, though. At 130K players, APB is just barely doing better than Tabula Rasa at its peak, and we all know how well that turned out. And APB's model means player registrations isn't necessarily a sign of good health. While the press release claims that the average player is playing four hours a day and the average paying player is spending $28 a month, APB's unlimited free social hours and the ability to "spend" in-game points rather than real money could be twisting those figures upwards a bit. Our colleagues at Massively also point out that while Star Trek Online was created relatively cheaply, APB's creation was reportedly much messier and more costly.

Still, with a dark cloud over the rest of Realtime Worlds' affairs, they might as well grab a silver lining where they can. If the company survives this launch, APB could have enough of a player base to make itself profitable.

Continue reading APB has 130K registered players, high average playtime and revenue per user

APB has 130K registered players, high average playtime and revenue per user originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

'Avatar Days' short examines WoW characters and their players

Mike Schramm — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:00:00 EST

"Avatar Days" is a new short by digital artist Cormac Kelly that examines the fascinating relationship between a World of Warcraft player and their in-game avatar. Not only is the animation great (and you can see how he's upscaled the five-year-old player character graphics of the popular MMO), but the premise is perfect, placing video game avatars of real-life players in everyday situations, and asking us the viewers to examine how they're connected together.

Excellent stuff. Not the first time we've seen these characters invade the real world, but definitely the most poignant. Watch the whole four minute short embedded after the break.

Update: Kelly emails to say that he only played a small part in the production -- the short was directed by Gavin Kelly and produced in just four days for Ireland's Darklight Film Festival.

[via Citizen Game]

Continue reading 'Avatar Days' short examines WoW characters and their players

'Avatar Days' short examines WoW characters and their players originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 May 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The best of WoW Insider: March 24-31, 2009

Mike Schramm — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:00:00 EST

Filed under: Online, Meta (about Joystiq), MMO

Ravagers, boars, and tigers, oh my. Patch 3.1 is bringing all sorts of wild animals into the game (though there are definitely of plenty wild animals available already) and WoW Insider is your animal tamer. No matter what Blizzard is tossing in to the world's most popular MMO in the next content patch, we'll make sure you've got the knowhow to tame one for your own.

News

WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 3.1
Our constantly updated guide to the new patch will you get you as ready as you can be.
Orangemarmalade's 1 vs. 2 comeback explained
A play-by-play of how an Arena Mage was able to conquer two players in one match.
Vaneras answers a whole lot of Mage questions
The casters among you may want to read what Blizzard has to say about the Mage class.
iPhone Authenticator now in App Store for free
Blizzard releases a free mobile authenticator program for your iPhone or iPod touch.
65% fewer Arena teams in Season 5
Where exactly have all the Arena players gone?

Features

The Queue: Scantily clad edition
The Q&A column answers exactly why women in the game seem to have such skimpy gear.
Scattered Shots: Finding a unique pet
Need a singular pet for your Hunter? Let us help.
Ready Check: Ulduar and burnout
Raiders aren't quite as happy as they could be with the raiding game.
Spiritual Guidance: Sartharion with all drakes
How to help out a Sarth 3D run on your healing Priest.
Time is Money: Low-level cloth
Where to make the money with Wool, Mageweave and Runecloth.

The best of WoW Insider: March 24-31, 2009 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

With our powers combined... Blu-ray + HD-DVD [UPDATED]

Adams Briscoe — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: News, Blu-ray

Some want it, others don't. Either way, Sony is going to get Blu-ray into your home one way or another. That's their plan anyway, thanks to the PlayStation 3. Like we've said before, it's not just about the games this time and Sony is in it for the long haul.

That's what makes this little bit of information so intriguing. What would happen if a Blu-ray partner like Samsung, who is technically not supposed to mess with HD-DVD, decides to foster a partnership with Toshiba in an attempt to make a hybrid player? Everyone is talking format wars with HD-DVD and Blu-ray going head-to-head. But what happens when you have a machine that can play both?

Having a dual-player would essentially take the "war" out of the formats. And with Sony trying to smuggle their medium into homes via the next-gen PlayStation, how is this move going to affect their strategy? It gets even more interesting with talks about making an HD-DVD/Blu-ray hybrid disc to go along with it. The kicker is this: Sony knows the PS3 is a good deal, as a Blu-ray platform, as they're trying to appeal to non-gamers with it as well. But would non-gamers still want to invest if they can have their cake and eat it too with a hybrid machine that can play both formats?

[UPDATE: Well, looks like you can cut through this rumor like a knife through warm butter. Check this out for the skinny on the mess. So all of the above is more of a hypothetical scenario. Yeah, that's it-]

With our powers combined... Blu-ray + HD-DVD [UPDATED] originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

WoW dominates MMO market share

Jennie Lees — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 08:58:00 EST

Filed under: PC, Online, MMO, Business

If you were in doubt about World of Warcraft's popularity amongst MMOs, the updated subscriber numbers over at MMOGChart will set you straight. The pie chart above shows the market share, as of May 2006, of subscription-based MMOs; the huge blue slice taking up 50.6% of the market is none other than Blizzard's behemoth.

While a number of smaller games have some slice of the pie, the MMO world is dominated by Lineage, World of Warcraft and Runescape -- the latter has been racking up subscribers recently.

Continue reading WoW dominates MMO market share

WoW dominates MMO market share originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 01 Jun 2006 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Preview of new Guitar Hero II co-op mode

Dan Choi — Mon, 08 May 2006 15:21:00 EST

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, E3, Peripherals, Rhythm

In case you missed it on Friday, IGN posted a pre-E3 hands-on preview of Guitar Hero II's new co-op mode. It's a departure from the first game's multiplayer mode in that the two players have to depend on each other a lot more to pass each song and thereby make beautiful music together.

While the old multiplayer option will still be around in the sequel, the new mode mixes distinct lead guitar and bass or rhythm parts where each player affects the other in various ways, whether by failing if either performance slips (as in DDR), sharing the same Rock Meter (with mistakes from either player resetting the score multiplier), and needing to both go vertical at the same time to activate the shared Star Power. Thankfully, different difficulty levels can be assigned to each player.

The Joystiq team out in L.A. will probably find something to do until they get their sweaty paws on a guitar controller or two on the E3 show floor (maybe one of those wacky press conferences will help pass the time), but we're sure the wait to try the latest build of this rockin' series will be worth it. The seven songs available at E3 are listed below.

[Thanks, murph]

Continue reading Preview of new Guitar Hero II co-op mode

Preview of new Guitar Hero II co-op mode originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 May 2006 15:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

ARG number-crunching

Jennie Lees — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Online, Puzzle

Alternate reality gaming; a niche pastime enjoyed by a minority of gamers? A fiendishly difficult hobby reserved for the most cerebral and dedicated few among us? Not necessarily, say these player numbers collated by Adrian Hon of Mind Candy.

Based on official numbers, the volume of forum posting and the number of hits on Google, these figures are pretty impressive. Two of the better-known ARGs -- The Beast and I Love Bees -- attracted upwards of two million players, according to their designers.

One problem with these numbers is the exact definition of "player"--is it anyone who visits a key website, or only someone following the thread of the story? The volume of buzz on forums and the Internet shows that ARGs can definitely get popular, although the most successful games so far have been run in conjunction with lavishly-funded advertising campaigns.

ARG number-crunching originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 12 Feb 2006 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments